The use of dental implants is well known, and dental implants have proven to be a durable and efficient means of replacing a lost tooth. Typically, when a patient breaks a tooth their options are either to have the tooth pulled or crowned. In order to crown a tooth, the root structure of the tooth must be undamaged and properly seated within the jawbone. Thereafter a permanent crown is fabricated by a dental laboratory for being received on and cemented to a prepared portion of the tooth extending above the gum line. Although the use of crowns is well known and accepted, problems may persist with the health of the underlying tooth structure and thus the durability of both the tooth and the crown.
As an alternative to a crown, for example where the tooth has been pulled or is otherwise absent, a dental implant provides a durable and efficient replacement for the missing tooth. In order to receive a dental implant, the dentist or dental surgeon will first prepare an osteotomy in the patient's jawbone for receiving a base portion of the implant therein. Once implanted, the base portion will in time become permanently affixed to the jaw by allowing the tissues surrounding the base portion to grow into and about the base portion for securing it to the patient's jaw. Thereafter an abutment is passed into the base portion, typically by being threaded into the base portion, and a permanent replacement tooth, somewhat akin to a crown, is prepared and permanently affixed to the abutment.
Some of the known problems that arise with the preparation of the osteotomy are that it is being prepared within the limited confines of a patient's mouth, and as such the dental surgeon is oftentimes required to estimate the depth of the opening being drilled into the patient's jawbone, as well as estimating the size, i.e., the diameter, of the opening being formed so that the opening has the necessary width and/or diameter for receiving and seating the base portion of the dental implant therein. Accordingly, the dental surgeon may have to refer to a shallow or faint depth mark scribed or formed directly on the shaft of the drill used to prepare, or drill, the osteotomy in order to determine the depth thereof.
This is an imprecise method, however, of responding to an exacting requirement for ensuring that the implant is properly seated within the patient's jaw, and for avoiding anatomic landmarks such as the patient's mandibular nerve or sinus cavities. Also, once drilled to the proper depth, the osteotomy oftentimes needs to be further drilled to the proper width/diameter for receiving the implant. It must also be borne in mind that this drilling is being done in the jawbone and tissues of a patient, and thus the need remains to minimize the amount of drilling in the jaw to avoid sensitive anatomical areas therein, as well as for patient comfort, healing, and health while ensuring the implant is properly seated in the jaw.
What is needed, therefore, but unavailable in the art is an improved dental drill system and method that will enable a dental surgeon to quickly, efficiently, and properly define an osteotomy to a desired depth and width while otherwise minimizing the amount of invasive drilling, or overdrilling, in the patient's jawbone, and which will also ensure that the osteotomy is properly sized and shaped to satisfactorily receive the desired dental implant therein.